Notes on the Geography of Indonesia: Borobudur 2

At the bottom of Borobudur there is a row of pictures that is almost entirely blocked by a stabilizing footing added even before Borobodur was completed. The Dutch removed the footing briefly in 1885, photographed the exposed panels a few years later, then restored the footing for stability's sake. Since then, only four panels have been visible. Even they remained inexplicable until 1931, when a scholar studying these pictures of human behavior and of graphically depicted heavens and hells--especially hells--realized that they illustrated the Mahakarmavibhangga, "The Great Classification of Actions."